


Criss-Crossed Love

by Moerae



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moerae/pseuds/Moerae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hawkmoth is throwing all he can at Ladybug and Chat Noir. Exhausted, and looking to end Hawkmoth and his akuma's, Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to investigate further.<br/>Meanwhile, Adrien and Marinette have been randomly assigned to do a class project together. The pair are spending an awful lot of time together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

"Marinette? Marinette!" Alya's voice cut through Marinette's stupor, and she jerked her head up. 

"What? What is it?" she asked, her voice panicked and confused. Marinette glanced around, and saw Chloe snickering at her. Their teacher stood at the front of the class, glaring at Marinette. Marinette grimaced. 

"You were falling asleep," Alya whispered. Marinette bit her lip, and looked down at her notes. "That's the third time today, girl!" 

"I couldn't sleep last night," Marinette lied. Her thoughts went to last night, swinging across Paris, ridding another of Hawk Moth's victims of the akuma. She'd been busy. 

"And what about yesterday? Or the day before? Sounds like you've just stopped sleeping all together."

Marinette shrugged, and focused on the teacher in front of her. Alya was right, she hadn't had much sleep lately at all. It was all she could do now to stop herself from yawning. Hawk Moth and his Akuma's seemed to be getting more and more frequent. Even Chat Noir had commented on it last night, before they parted ways to transform in secret. Marinette shook her head slightly, ridding her mind from thoughts of Akuma's and Hawk Moth. That was a problem for Ladybug. Right now, she was Marinette, and she needed to focus.

The teacher cleared her throat, and gave the class a stern look. "I've noticed you've all gotten a bit too comfortable with the seating arrangements," Miss Bustier said, frowning. "This has led to some disruptions in the class." 

Marinette and Alya snuck each other guilty looks. 

"As such, I have decided it's in our best interests if we re-arrange the seating. I'll be drawing names out of a hat, and there is to be no swapping amongst yourselves." 

Marinette's eyes widened. Alya was her best friend. They helped each other out. She didn't want to be seated next to anyone else. And what if she was stuck with someone like Chloe? Marinette almost gagged at the thought. 

The teacher only gave them her trademark glare. It was a look that said 'do as I say, or face detention'. Everyone quietened down immediately, and waited in silence as the teacher wrote down everyone's names onto slips of paper. 

Marinette's hands gripped the table, and her and Alya exchanged nervous looks. Neither one wanted to be placed next to Chloe. Or Sabrina, for that matter. Although Marinette felt sorry for Sabrina, she found the girl a bit overbearing as a friend. 

The teacher began to draw the names out of the hat. Marinette held her breath, her knuckles white. 

"Alya," there was a pause as the teacher pulled out Alya's new partner, "And Chloe." 

"Chloe?" Alya said, barely hiding the disgust in her voice. Marinette gave Alya a sympathetic look. She felt sorry for Alya, but was secretly relieved that it wasn't her next to Chloe. Chloe looked just as annoyed by the turn of events as Alya. 

"Marinette," the teacher said. Marinette's head jerked up. "And Adrien."

Marinette felt the colour flood to her face. Alya gave her a small smirk. Adrien turned around and gave her a small smile. Marinette could barely control her face muscles enough to return the smile. She was getting used to being around him, but she wasn't so sure she could handle sitting right next to him all the time. What if he found her annoying? What if he thought the way she stuck her elbows out when writing was dorky? What if he thought she breathed too loud? What if he thought she smelled bad? 

Her heart was beating so fast that she thought he could hear it. What if he thought that was annoying? 

"Dude! This blows, we're not going to be seat buddies anymore," Nino said. Adrien looked away from Marinette, breaking her stupor. 

Alya elbowed her, and nodded to Chloe. The girl was fuming, her face as red as a tomato. They could almost see the steam from her ears. 

Marinette couldn't help but feel satisfied at Chloe's anger. The girl was a bully, and it was good to see her comeuppance sometimes. 

"We will begin the new seating arrangements when we return to class," the teacher said, signalling the end of their first period. 

Marinette let out a heavy sigh as she packed up her work. 

"What are you sighing for?" Alya said, nudging her. "You're not the one stuck next to Chloe."

Marinette gave Alya a small smile. "But I'm not sitting next to you either. I can't sit next to Adrien - what if he thinks I'm weird?" 

Alya laughed. "You'll be fine. I'll help you talk to him still."

"What would I do without you, Alya?" 

"Be a mess, probably."

 

* * *

 

 

Chat Noir leaned against the brick wall, his breathing heavy. "This is getting out of control," he huffed. Ladybug nodded. "This is the fourth akuma we've faced this week, and it's only Wednesday. Last week we had five akumas, and the week before that, seven." 

"Chat, I have to go soon, I'm about to de-transform," Ladybug said, getting ready to leave.

Chat caught her arm in his hand, looking into her eyes. "Lady, we can't do this forever. We need to find out who Hawk Moth is and how to stop him." He gave her a smile, surprisingly small in comparison to his usual Cheshire grin.

"I know Chat, I know. But right now, I need to find somewhere to de-transform, and so do you." Ladybug disentangled herself from him, pulling her yoyo from her hip.

Chat nodded. "We need to start investigating. Meet me at the Eiffel Tower tomorrow night, yeah?" 

Ladybug looked at him briefly, before swinging away. Chat watched her until he could no longer see her, aware of how close he was cutting his de-transformation.

 


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, Marinette, are you ok? You look like you're about to fall asleep," Adrien whispered, looking at the dark haired girl next to him. Her chin was resting on her hand, and her eyes were drooping. He had to admit it was kind of cute. Her head slipped down, and she shot back up in surprise.

"Huh, what?" she asked, her eyes darting around wildly. She froze up when she saw him watching her. He would have chuckled, but the colour flooding to her cheeks told him he probably shouldn't embarrass her further.

Miss Bustier cleared he throat, shooting a cold glare towards Marinette. Sometimes Adrien wondered if Miss Bustier had been akuma-tised, with how cold she could be.

"You good?" Adrien asked, his voice a whisper. They were towards the back, something that was going to take him a while to get used to. Nino was down the front, sitting as far away from the awkward Sabrina as possible. Alya, Marinette's friend, was a row in front and across from them, and she kept shooting Marinette glances, particularly whenever Chloe said something.

Marinette nodded. "Just tired. I had a busy lunch," she whispered back.

"Tell me about it," Adrien mumbled. Defeating the Mole was tough work, his ability to burrow underground and spring up with no warning had been tricky to figure out. It had taken longer than usual to defeat him and his akuma, but Adrien had already decided that that was because both him and Ladybug were exhausted.

"Now, class, at the end of next month, there is a fashion competition," Miss Bustier's voice interrupted them, and Adrien was slightly amazed by how fast Marinette's attention turned to Miss Bustier. "Our school will not be the only one to enter, however, I hope our school will be the one to win. As such, for your homework, you and your partner - the person sitting next to you - are to design and create an outfit together."

Adrien glanced to Marinette, who's light blue eyes were wide with excitement.

"I'll be passing out the competition requirements shortly, however feel free to start discussing ideas with your partner. I expect to see full cooperation between you. It will be an exercise in working with someone you wouldn't usually. If, and only if, one of you wins the competition, will I reconsider the seating arrangements. Is that clear?" Miss Bustier fixed the class with a cold glare, before nodding curtly. 

Adrien turned to Marinette, and was surprised to find her already opening her sketch book. 

"I suppose winning this shouldn't be too hard, with you here," he said, smiling warmly. 

She glanced up at him, her eyes shining. Her jaw was slightly lowered, but she closed it quickly, grinning. "You think so?"

"You won the derby hat competition didn't you?" 

She nodded enthusiastically, her voice appearing to fail her. They were interrupted by Miss Bustier handing them a sheet of paper. Adrien shifted it to the middle of the table where they could read it better. 

"I expect a good design from you, Marinette. Challenge yourself." 

Marinette nodded eagerly. Adrien leaned over to read the competition details, his arm brushing against Marinette's. 

"It says here, the theme is Paris. And that one of us has to model it," he told her, looking up. Her face was bright red, and she flashed him a nervous smile. 

"Ah, that should be you. You're the ho- the model! You're the model, after all," she said, laughing nervously. He shook his head. 

"You should do it," Adrien said, smiling warmly. "You'd be good at it. I can even teach you how to walk like a model."

"Really? If you say so," her voice trailed off nervously. 

"Yeah! You'll look great!" 

 

* * *

 

Marinette fell face first onto her bed, her arms outstretched. "What am I going to do, Alya?" she asked, her voice muffled. "He wants me to be the one to model what we make. What if I fall?"

"Sounds like you've already fallen - hard," Alya teased. Marinette raised her head to glare at her best friend. 

"Alya," Marinette whined, stretching her name out. 

"You'll be fine, Marinette," Alya comforted her, smiling gently. "You and Adrien are gonna spend time together, you're going to be your usual charming self, and he'll realise how cute you are and fall for you. Trust me. And hey, maybe these modelling lessons will make you less of a clutz." 

Marinette buried her face in her pillow. "You really think that?"

"Yes I do. Especially the spending time together thing, because I told him I'd let you know that he's dropping by at five-thirty to start working on the project."

Marinette shot up, her eyes wide with panic. "What time is it?" 

"Five-twenty," Alya said, grinning wide. "You have five minutes to get ready." 

Marinette threw a pillow at Alya, before letting out a groan. Downstairs, the doorbell rang. This was not how Marinette planned the project going.  

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress, and any suggestions on better characterization would be fantastic!  
> I also apologise for my lack of knowledge when it comes to the way French School's are structured, if anyone could help me out that'd be great :)


End file.
